8 Blockchain Startups Disrupting The Agricultural Industry

Based on an analysis of more than 150 startups, we’ll show you 8 Blockchain startups disrupting the agricultural industry. As a bonus, we’ll walk you through the most innovative use cases in the sector!

Worldcovr – Provide crop insurance to protect against loss of yield using satellites to monitor the rainfall and trigger payouts automatically.

The size of blockchain innovations in the agriculture market is expected to grow from an estimated $41.2 million in 2017 to nearly $430 million by 2023, representing an impressive 47.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

The blockchain is already reshaping the industry’s way of doing business by decreasing the risk of fraudulent activities, boosting transaction speeds, helping farmers control and analyze crops, and much more.

Innovation Map: How Blockchain Transforms The Agricultural Sector

Our team of innovation analysts conducted thorough and extensive research on the potential of blockchain in the agricultural industry, encompassing over 150 startups working in the field.

Below, you’ll find the Innovation Map highlighting the most promising application areas as well as a deep dive in each of the sections.

Optimization of the Food Supply Chain

Providing information on the origins of food products is essential to ensure customer loyalty and confidence. Blockchain can essentially make any fruit or vegetable as safe to buy as the ones grown locally from a nearby farm.

With traditional supply chains, food retailers do not have an effective way of ensuring that all products were grown under conditions specified by a given supplier. That’s why retail giants such as Walmart, Unilever, and Carrefour already resort to blockchain for tracing food products’ places of origin.

Moreover, the time it takes to track the origin of food is also massively cut down. Taking Walmart as an example, it took nearly a week to trace the origin of their mangoes. Through the blockchain, this time is cut to a mere 2 seconds.

In case a product is not up to a retailer’s standards, limiting the time it takes to trace a product’s source is crucial as it empowers retailers to isolate this product more quickly thus minimizing the risk of harm to humans.

Transactions

Blockchain in agriculture is uniquely positioned to help not only simplify transaction processes but also to level the playing ground for small-scale farmers and crop growers, especially from poor regions.

It is estimated that $940 billion worth of food goes to waste every year worldwide. In part, this happens because farmers and growers from less developed countries do not always have access to wide markets, which leaves them incapable of selling all the food they produce.

AgUnity is one blockchain startups tackling this issue by giving small players access to their proprietary blockchain-based platform for trading agricultural products and building trust between market participants. Their product allows individual market participants to form small co-operatives and work together.

Another benefit blockchain brings to the table is the ability for agricultural producers to set prices more efficiently and effectively. This allows managing their output to match the demand for their products.

Crop Insurance

In agriculture, smart contracts have unique implementations in the form of helping farmers insure their crops and claim damages with insurance companies. Normally, it is a painfully slow and burdensome process, both on the side of the grower and the company that insures them.

Unpredictable weather anomalies make it difficult to correctly estimate and quickly report the exact losses they cause. This leaves room for fraud and makes the process an operational nightmare.

Through setting up tailored smart blockchain contracts, the damage claim can be triggered via changes to weather conditions that meet certain criteria, easing the process for farmers and insurers.

Traceability

Demand for organic, local products is constantly rising. Blockchain enables consumers to verify the journey of their product, tracing it from farm to table.

Moreover, it also provides data on when a product was harvested and produces as well as who produced it. This goes as far as to tell show consumers in which field their grass-fed beef, amongst other products, was raised – in a matter of seconds.

As the information recorded on the blockchain is unalterable, it can provide reliable information and is forgery-proof.

Conclusion

In agriculture, blockchain has shown to be a technology that can re-engineer many existing processes ― from settling transactions, tracing the food origin and tracking the customer demand to creating new marketplaces.

Staying on top of the newest developments in agricultural processes is as complex as it is essential for improving the entire sector.

Given the rapid development of this technology, it has become a necessity to stay informed of the most recent developments in the field to stay ahead of your competition.